1. Field
The invention relates to a device management system and method.
2. Related Art
Office equipment manufacturers often lease office equipment to business owners either directly or through dealers (collectively dealers). Office equipment might comprise fax, copy, scan, printing, or multi-function devices or machines. The lease fee may be based on “clicks:” the number of faxes, copies, scans, and/or printouts run through the leased device. The lease fee may additionally be based on consumable usage. That is, on the amount of paper, toner, ink, and the like used by the business owner during a predetermined period.
The dealers must proactively replenish necessary supplies to the leased devices. And the dealers are responsible for maintaining the leased devices in proper working order, as well as keeping track of the clicks and consumable usage. To this end, the dealers have developed manual and semi-automated means of collecting the click counts and consumable usage on the leased devices. The leased devices are notably often located geographically distant from the dealer.
Manually collecting click counts involves a dealer representative visiting the business owner on a regular basis to inspect the leased device. The dealer representative obtains the click counts by, e.g., pressing a predetermined sequence of buttons on the device's front panel. During the visit, the dealer representative may also stock the business owner with needed consumables based on the clicks obtained from the device. For billing purposes, the representative may manually input the click count and consumable usage into a dealer management system designed to generate lease bills. Alternatively, the business owner obtains and then faxes the click counts and usage to the dealer. The dealer then manually inputs the click counts and usage into the dealer management system.
Semi-automatically collecting click counts involves coupling the leased device to a computer network and providing the leased device with the ability to automatically generate a status report. The status report may include the click counts and certain other status information.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of a conventional semi-automatic system 100. Referring to FIG. 1, a system 100 includes a plurality of devices, e.g., 110A, 110B, and 110C, networked to a site server 120 through network capable devices, e.g., network interface cards (NICs) (not shown) installed in the devices 110A, 110B, and 110C. The plurality of devices 110A, 110B, and 110C are leased to a customer 130. The site server 120 may be coupled to a dealer server 150 through a global communication network 140, e.g., the Internet®. A plurality of customers like customer 130 may be coupled to the dealer server 150 through the network 140. The dealer server 150 may receive the status report directly and automatically from the leased device, e.g., device 110A. A person 160 downloads the status report from the server 150. A person 170 gets the status report from the person 160 and then manually inputs the information to a dealer management system 180. The dealer management system 180, in turn, automatically generates a bill to the customer 130. Persons 160 and 170 may be the same person or they may be distinct persons.
A disadvantage to manual and semi-automatic data collection is cost. As manual labor costs increase, so do costs associated with visits to collect and input click counts. Manual data collection and input is fraught with errors. And manual and semi-automatic click count and other data collection takes valuable time away from the dealer's staff, time needed to respond to consumable calls for restocking paper, toner, and drums, conducting preventative maintenance, and/or servicing leased device breakdowns
Accordingly, a need remains for an improved device management system and method.